Users of music, television, multimedia, digital content, and other devices have become increasingly frustrated with an ecosystem that consists of too many components. In the world of entertainment, these consumers may connect devices such as DVD players, set-top boxes, amplifiers, remote controls, and television displays through a myriad of cables and wireless technologies that all need to be customized and programmed in order to function. The confusion faced by consumers is compounded when other, more critical, home systems are factored into the ecosystem, such as lighting, temperature, security and health monitoring controls. There have been some industry efforts to standardize the technical functionality of electronic equipment, for example, the development of Universal Plug and Play (UPnP). However, other technologies and specifications, such as those related to Audio/Video, are extremely verbose. As a consequence, manufacturers have generally implemented only parts of these specifications, which in turn creates functionality holes for the ecosystem. Ultimately, this makes it extremely difficult to create a user interface to operate such an ecosystem. These are some of the areas that embodiments of the present invention are designed to address.